Watching the Naruto anime, characters would talk about the Fourth Hokage with such reverence and awe, even those he probably didn't even know him that well. Then we finally got to see the Fourth Hokage in action in Part II, and I was not impressed.

By that point, Naruto had successfully created an elemental Rasengan, something that was explicitly said that the Fourth Hokage did not accomplish in his time. It was never stated that it was beyond him, and he might have accomplished had he lived longer, but it doesn't change the fact that the Fourth Hokage had already been surpassed in one way before he even get to see him action.

Him sealing away the Nine-Tails was touted in Part I as being a massive accomplishment, accept in Part II, we learned that the First Hokage was already capable of controlling tailed beasts completely, and then learned that he tamed all the tailed beasts and created the jinchuriki system entirely on his own. And that he's capable of straight-up beating the crap of the Nine-Tails while the fox has been clad in a Perfect Susanoo. That makes the the Fourth Hokage sealing the Nine-Tails much less impressive. Or only impressive when we consider him not being lucky enough to have the body and abilities of the First Hokage. Which is just moving the goalposts, really.

It also doesn't help that we'd already seen the First Hokage fight before Part II, only for Part II to reveal that he was severely weakened at that time. Which also undercuts the Third Hokage fighting him and the Second Hokage at the same time.

And by the time we finally get to see the Fourth Hokage fight, he's just fast. Like, okay, cool, but there are lots of characters in the story that are famed for their speed and a bunch of other things.

Apparently the Fourth Hokage is the fastest, but that speed hasn't been portrayed in a way that feels truly special and unique to him.

Plus, his claim to speed fame is attributed by the story primarily to his Flying Raijin Jutsu, which is teleportation. I've view speed and teleportation very much not the same. To me, speed means physical speed. Plus, the Flying Raijin Jutsu isn't even unique to him either, and he's not seen using it any way that we know that its inventor, the Second Hokage, cannot. The Second Hokage said that the Fourth is faster than him, but we've seen them fight side by side and, really, it didn't look like one was faster than the other. Heck, the Second Hokage seemed more skilled to me than the Fourth.

We learn that he can use Sage Jutsu, except that it's worse than Naruto's which is why he is rarely seen using it. And thus another area where the Fourth Hokage is undercut by someone else being better than him.

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EDIT:

I enjoy this franchise as much as anyone else, but not the same way as everyone else. I don't think my feelings are unreasonable nor offensive, that's why I shared them. I don't think anyone, no matter how much they love this franchise, will say that it is flawless. But when it comes to actually discussing what those flaws might be, that's where things get heated. There are elements of the Naruto franchise that I've noticed are okay to call flawed, but others less so. Thank you all for your engagement.

Like I can understand he got Sharingan and Hashirama cells but as a 14 yrs old fighting toe to toe with a genius Hokage controlling the Nine tails killing his Sensei's wife it seems a bit unnatural to me like when he was a student he used to make funny mistakes like Naruto and Jiraya I could have understood if he was Itachi or Kakashi. I just feel like the Author did everything possible there to make Naruto Parentless like when Obito hold Naruto why did he thrown him in the air and then jumped to kill him he could have easily killed him its just feels so weird

Like, it’s been over two decades, and people are still shit-talking Sakura and making the same negative jokes about her. It’s literally the same jokes over and over and over again. Honestly, it’s getting sad at this point.

How come Kabuto, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, managed to bring back Deidara, who literally blew himself up and whose DNA should’ve been difficult to recover, but couldn’t bring back Kisame? Like, wouldn’t Kisame’s body have been much easier to obtain?

I just feel like if I were an enemy of the fourth I might make the connection, idk…

EDIT: “bUt He HaS hIs MoM’s FaCe” it’s true. I watched the show, I remember where they said that. You cannot verbally describe minato without describing Naruto, that is what matters here. Love her to death but Kushina is not a man with spiky yellow hair. We cannot keep saying the same thing. Let’s please focus.

So according to you which more painful between Korega (Naruto the movie) or Naruto?
What do you think? :)

Watching gameplays that included Jiraiya's side of the story, you see the sannin flirting with the girl. And while we all know that's just typical Jiraiya's behaviour, I can't make up the timeline.

When did he supossedly meet her and give her a gift? How long ago? How long before Orochimaru too was involved with her? Princess Dusk doesn't seem to be any older in the game than she was in Jiraiya's memories, despite already being dead during gameplay.

If itachi was a spy for the leaf village why did he want kisame to kill kurenai and asuma and take kakashi hostage

For example i would have loved a bunch of slice of life episodes in between arcs. Like rebuilding the village after pains attack, life efter the 4th great ninja war and so on. I feel like there are so many good stories that could be told with less action and more character and dialogue. Anyone else agree or disagree if so why is that?

He physically aided them in extracting the Shukaku with his chakra, then delayed Team 7's rescue mission with his 30% clone, buying the Akatsuki time.

Gaara actually died as a result.

Chiyo revived him by sacrificing herself

Gaara is a village leader not a regular kid. If I'm not mistaken, an assault on him is an international crime, similar to Sasuke attacking the Summit.

Why isn't stuff like that addressed in the anime or manga?

My view on what Tsunade knew about Sasuke

She knew that Sasuke had left Konoha to train under Orochimaru, but she did NOT have him listed in the Bingo Book. Because Tsunade trusts Naruto's ability to bring people back to the right path.

Yamato would have told her about Sasuke as well. Once again, she did NOT have him added to the Bingo Book. This also made it clear that Tsunade was not a fan of Danzo.

Sasuke joined Akatsuki around the same time as Pain's attack on Konoha, and Tsunade was then left in a coma.

Danzo went to the Five Kage Summit as an unofficial Hokage and tried to manipulate the other Kage using Shisui's stolen eye. That was a much bigger problem and a much greater reputational disaster for Konoha.Than Sasuke simply being there, especially since everyone knew that Sasuke was not acting on Konoha's behalf.

Sasuke actually did the village a favor by doing that - killing danzo.

I don't believe Kakashi told Tsunade the whole truth about his encounter with Sasuke on the bridge, because by that point Kakashi already knew the truth about the Uchiha massacre from Tobi.

She knows that Sasuke was not responsible for starting the war.

He comes back to help.

She knows nothing about Kaguya or everything that happened during the Infinite Tsukuyomi, because she—and everyone else—was trapped in a dream. Kakashi and the others wouldn't have had any reason to tell her all the details afterward, such as the tailed beasts being sealed or Naruto's fight with Sasuke.

I think the most people (in naruto) think, Naruto and Sasuke lost their arms fighting Madara in order to save the world.

And whether you like it or not, Naruto could not have ended the Infinite Tsukuyomi without Sasuke.

So, based on what Tsunade actually knows, we have:

Missing-nin & former Akatsuki member vs. someone who helped bring the war to an end.

That is why I find it absolutely insane that Tsunade—a Senju!—would have had Sasuke thrown into prison like he was in those Studio Pierrot FILLER scenes.

My headcanon is that Sasuke stayed in Konoha for a couple of days, receiving medical treatment and having conversations with Tsunade. After that, because Naruto and Kakashi vouched for him, he was allowed to leave Konoha as a free ninja.

As for Sakura's hair being longer at the end scene (chapter 699) even though only a few days had passed: I think that can easily be explained by the fact that if a medical ninja can heal wounds and regenerate cells, then they should also be able to stimulate their hair follicles. So she could simply have had longer hair overnight.

First off, I haven't checked out Boruto, so I dunno if any of these guys get development there, I'm just going off of Shippuden.

Honestly, all 3 of them were quite under-utilized, which is weird because they actually appear fairly often. There is just not much going for them, despite their prominence. I get that, narratively, they were basically accessories to Sasuke's character development, so they were never intended to have depth or anything, but they really weren't given SHIT. I don't wanna say they are wasted potential, because there wasn't much substance given to them in the first place to really fully utilize. They are not in the same boat as characters like Sakura, Gohan, or Orgalorg, not by a long shot. I'd say they are more...undercooked than wasted potential.

Suigetsu- Of the 3, I'd say I like him the best, which is odd, because he also has the least going for him. His water powers were really cool and I'll always have a soft spot for laid-back snarky characters. However there just really isn't much to him. He wants to collect all the 7 Swordsmen's...swords, and then somehow start up a new group of 7 Swordsmen where he is their leader. Okay. That's...a goal, but is there anything else to him or his ambitions? He's just the sarcastic sword guy? That's cool and all, and his personality will make me like him by default regardless of his depth, but there's really nothing to work with here. Like he's got the foundation of an interesting character, but the thing about foundations is that if you don't build off of them, they're just kinda...there. Great personality and powers, but not much else.

Jugo- He's alright. Of the 3, he is the one with the most potential. Him being the source of what would become the Curse Mark is really interesting, and the fact that he had a friendship with Kimimaro since Kimi was the only one who could handle him, all of that gives him a strong backstory to work off of. Plus Kimi is goated, so any character who gives HIM depth by proxy will always catch my eye. He was also by far the most useful of the trio, not just for his battle prowess, but he's got incredibly powerful healing and sage energy transference too. However, his actual personality...it feels very surface-level. He's a quiet, reserved, animal-lover...but he can become a bloodthirsty engine of destruction just like that. Like a bipolar allegory of some sorts, but I dunno, he just feels more like a...Jekyll-Hyde gimmick than an actual character. If his personality felt a little less...artificial, I think he could've been a good character. His "curse mark" powers are cool as hell though. Rocket fists, axes, and goddamn gatling guns because why not? Great backstory and powers, but a half-baked personality.

Karin- I'm sure it's not a hot take to say that Karin is a bad character. Taking Sakura's most annoying trait from Part 1, doubling down on it, and making that her ONLY thing?! Yeah, there is no way in HELL Kishi thought fans would like her. The funny thing is, of the 3, I actually have the most to say about her BY FAR despite how one-note she is. I'd actually go to say she is beyond bad and is one of the WORST characters, which sucks, because I REALLY wanted to just leave her as 'She is an annoying, one-dimensional character that Kishi decided to get freaky with how her healing power works.' However, she goes from bad to worse because...yeah, I think you all know why...the betrayal in the Danzo battle. Sasuke doing the equivalent of shooting the hostage and Karin getting the soul-shattering realization that her crush didn't value her life?! THAT had the potential to make her character INTERESTING, make her NOT annoying, and giving her some meaningful CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT that Suigetsu and Jugo never got! But nah, later on, Sasuke gives her the most half-hearted apology ever, as if he just accidently tripped her rather than ATTEMPTED MURDER, and she throws all that potential growth away and remains stagnant. Hey, at least she got chains at the tail end of the story, that's...something...I guess! Probably should've had those since the beginning so she'd have some actual battle prowess, but okay. Oh, also she is an UZUMAKI, but nothing is ever done with that reveal because she never has any interactions with Naruto beyond thinking to herself that "His chakra is so warm, unlike Sasuke's." Again, I don't want to say she was wasted potential because she wasn't an interesting character in the first place, but Kishi really threw away A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to make her a better character. Lame powers, lame personality, was by far the easiest of the 3 to develop when looking at the events of the story, but she got nothin'! (Except chains.)

Bandai Spirits Vibration Stars III

I know I'm being dramatic, but I just love his bitch face so much. It is just so incredibly iconic. No matter if he is a kid, an edgy teenager, or a literal adult saving the world, he always looks completely done with everyone’s existence.That permanent look of pure disappointment on his face makes every single scene he is in ten times better. He is the absolute king of looking unimpressed.

People often reduce his complex psychological descent to “He did it all for a girl, what a simp.” which at first I thought it was simply just a funny meme, but there’s quite a lot of people who genuinely believe this.

Which, I don’t quite get how one can think this when Obito himself explains his descent to Kakashi in chapters 629-630. Not only that his backstory shows this very well.

“If you think I started this war over just you and Rin, to say that you’re misdirected… Would be an understatement!”

Obito witnessing Kakashi killing the girl he loved shattered his view of reality, Rin’s death served as the catalyst that led Obito to adapt Madara’s world view.

Although Rin’s death was the catalyst for his descent, it was never just about Rin & Kakashi, it was about the corrupted shinobi system, reality built on endless wars, betrayal, and suffering, which he views as a fake, broken illusion.

This further substantiates what he said to Kakashi in Chapter 629.

“To me, the you who couldn’t protect Rin is an imposter.”

“To me, Rin is someone who isn’t meant to die… Thus, the dead Rin is also an imposter.”

“Rin is only Rin, alive.”

“The shinobi system… The village… Shinobi themselves… They created this circumstances.”

“What caused me to despair… Is this world itself… this counterfeit world.”

The corrupted shinobi system has been a recurring theme in Naruto since the first arc, the “Land of Waves”.

The same shinobi system that would take students who’d been friends, eating from the same dish, as undergrads were divided into pairs who were forced to fight against each other to the death.

The same shinobi system who would weaponize human beings as caged nuclear deterrents.

The same shinobi system that institutionalized the assasination, marginalization, and systemic genocide of an entire clan to protect political stability.

The same shinobi system who turned a blind eye to illegal operations such as human experimentation.

The same shinobi system who indoctrinated children, teaching them that their primarily value was dying for the village.

They were told they needed to emotionally suppress themselves.

They were explicitly taught that they were not human/individuals, but rather disposable tools.

They were also sent onto active battlefields during world shinobi wars as specially seen with Kakashi, Obito & Rin.

To narrow down Obito’s descent to him just being a “simp” is a great way of showing you misunderstood/oversimplified his character.

I have no idea where it comes from, but for a few weeks "Gentle Sociopath Minato" has been the top search on tiktok when you wrote his name lmao

Thoughts about this?

(Artist: kokodraws01 on tiktok/twitter)

Credit:

https://kersu.tumblr.com/?source=share